British Cycling today welcomed the Department for Transport’s decision to allocate £266m to local sustainable transport schemes.

Reacting to the news Martin Gibbs, British Cycling’s Director of Policy and Legal Affairs, said:

“British Cycling welcomes the Department for Transport’s latest allocation of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, especially as many of the schemes funded incorporate cycling and cycle safety. The millions of pounds going to cities like Manchester, Stoke on Trent and Bristol will be a great boost to cycling and other sustainable travel in these areas.

“We congratulate Norman Baker’s on efforts to bring cycling into the heart of transport and will continue to support the Department in its efforts through the Cycle Stakeholder Forum. British Cycling is calling on the Department for Transport to issue a policy statement that from now on all policy decisions on roads and junctions are made with cycling as a consideration. If we make this fundamental policy change we’ll make real progress to building an environment which encourages people to cycle.”

British Cycling and Welcome to Yorkshire have today issued a joint response to Highways England, following their proposal to introduce a ‘prohibition of cyclists’ order on the A63 trunk road, near Hull.